The use of on-screen display of a channel number, for instance, has been proposed in an article entitled, "Broadcast and Television Receivers" IEEE, Vol. BTR-15, No. 2, July 1969, however, the character generators which are available commercially are generally "read only memories" designed to display either 16 or 64 alpha-numeric characters. These character generators require 350 memory bits for 10 characters. In such a device, all 35 possible positions in a 5 .times. 7 font are used for the numerals. The character generator is the most expensive element of such a system.
A Co-pending Patent Application of Ralph Joseph Ludlam entitled, "Electronic Channel Selection & Device", Ser. No. 265,231, now abandoned, describes a system for producing digital information representative of a selected channel. This data may be used by the display system of the present invention.